Private Eye’s Francis Wheen (of HP Sauce) has some good sources inside Labour circles and has heard some of the stories going around. When Guido previously mentioned Draper’s widely known financial woes, Dolly launched into one of his charateristic blustering tirades:

Needless to say [Guido’s] latest post about me is inaccurate, offensive and libellous… I am clearly not going to get into my personal finances as these are no-one else’s business but the picture [Guido] attempts to paint is patently ridiculous.

You will note there are no names or actual facts just blanket and unspecific insinuations. If he had any actual facts why wouldn’t he publish them?

Guido will be more specific this time. Private Eye doesn’t report that when Macintyre found out about Draper’s treachery, he called Dolly “pure f***ing evil”. Macintyre also complained to friends that it wasn’t just the difficulty of getting Draper to pay back the money he owed – it was that Draper had enjoyed many an expensive alcohol fuelled lunch with Macintyre, unfortunately invariably at the latter’s expense.

The left-wing New Statesman political correspondent fancies himself as someone with an understanding of economics – he recently had a spat with Fraser Nelson, the Spectator’s number crunching political editor, which was hysterically one sided. It has taken Macintyre a long time to grasp that there is no such a thing as a free lunch – except for Draper.